Total Pageviews

Friday, April 12, 2013

Broke




Sitting quietly in the den,
sipping my morning coffee,
deciding between poetry and
the L.A. Times crossword.
Suddenly a loud thump,
from the kitchen,
all too familiar.
It can only mean one thing:
a broken window or
a broken neck.
A quick dash and glance,
no shattered glass.
A slanted peek at the patio,
no broken bird.
No birds at all at the feeder.
Well, one, a cooper’s hawk,
a big one, smiling that smile
through its eyes.
Missed that one, it seems to say.
Next time.
Oh, and thanks for the feeders.
I’m always hungry.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Suffering (a Quinzaine)

two riffs on the same thought, the prompt being "suffering" and the form is Quinzaine : 7-5-3, statement-question-question, unrhymed.



Koan I

No doubt, life is suffering..
How does one respond?
Truth or dare?

Koan II

No doubt, life is a challenge.
How does one respond?
Play or hide? 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Seekers

Searching for a new home
will gain one many new friends.
The realtors beget the lenders,
who send the inspectors,
and they refer the fix-it guys.
Let’s not forget the movers,
the neighborhood handymen,
the HOA, PTA, Neighborhood Watch.
The Mormons and SDA’s
always seem to find us.
Here’s an idea – how about we
have them deliver the mail,
they knock on every door, anyhow.
Oops, gotta go,
Molly Maid just arrived.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

A Sevenling Poem



The sevenling has some interesting rules (some a little more abstract than others), but the basics involve writing a seven line poem comprised of two tercets and a final one-line stanza that kind of holds everything together, a punch line of sorts, or a narrative juxtaposition...Here's mine, today:





Feeding Time

There are four
bird feeders in our yard,
two seed, two humming.

There are many
types of customers for our largesse,
small, medium and large.

There is one very observant hawk.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Emily

A long time married,
seemingly forever,
or at least, like swans,
mated for life,
they still argued, bickered,
even fought.
To her, the fight was
always about him.
To him, it was
always about money.
It wasn’t that they
loved each other less,
simply that they
found things not to like.
At such moments,
and the reason they
stayed married forever,
a particular type of
etiquette prevailed.
They could yell, talk back,
accuse even, but one rule
always carried the day:
no matter what,
no matter when,
no matter where,
it was okay to act crazy,
so long as both of them
were not
temporarily insane
at the same time.

Friday, April 5, 2013

From an old conversation with Will

It really was
a beautiful ring,
and it cost just
a little less
than I loved her,
and then they
added the tax.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Hold That...



Hold That Pose

for me, if you would,
it would be great if you could,
though I’m not as quick as I should
be, I just hoped you’d understood
that there’s a reason for it all,
why you can’t answer nature’s call,
just keep your focus on the wall,
the one leading to the hall,
that place with vase and one thin rose,
giving pleasure to the nose,
one way the muse in me still grows,
if you would simply hold that pose.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Tentative




At a certain age,
it all becomes provisional,
the big things,
the small stuff,
everything contingent on
the time remaining,
a simple fact of life.
It is also true that,
no matter the years,
the many or the few,
we’re all just passing through,
temporarily positioned between
two eternities.
So what is one to do?
Perhaps boldly experiment with
one’s uncertain future,
not fretting about
tentative schedules,
tentative arrival times,
tentative deals,
tentative release dates,
or tentative rulings.
Maybe it is best to
not stew about outcomes,
not worry about unfixed uncertainties.
Better to be as feisty as
the 80-year old man,
a bearded hero who
buys a new hammock
and two saplings.
He doesn’t concern himself with
future change for today’s dollar.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Light & Dark


It has been a good day,
nothing too grand, nor magical,
simply a few hours of quiet enjoyment,
some idle conversation with friends,
cheered on by the crisp sunlight of early spring,
hands shielding eyes against the glare,
smelling the ocean in the thin clouds,
down here, close to the border with Mexico.

How hopeful the sounds of passersby,
baseball season upon them,
the dark days of busted brackets behind,
still a rosy outlook for the local heroes,
not yet time for clever analysis,
of what went wrong this time.
There’ll be time later for the reality of defeats,
their shadows eclipsing today’s bright sun.

The gloomy mornings of winter are gone now,
but summer still sleeps,
not quite ready for her big entrance.
This is spring, and she’s still young,
so, satisfied, we capture
bits of today’s breezy brilliance,
enlivened by the simple pleasure of it all,
grateful for this good day.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Arrival

After a somewhat lengthy journey,
spanning his entire life, actually,
listening only to the sound of his feet,
he arrived at wisdom.
The next morning,
he arrived at it again